His intense ambition and self-confidence enable him to handle
both jobs at the same time, despite the myriad challenges — like
broken-down cars, economic collapses, and failed rockets — that
come with changing the automotive and aerospace industries.

It's the combination of that ambition and business acumen that
have made Musk what he is today. "For all his grand plans, he's a
pretty pragmatic businessman who knows how to build a company,"
Matt Desch, CEO of satellite-communications provider Iridium
told Esquire last year.

Starting With A Clear Vision

Musk, who was raised in South Africa, then moved to Canada and
ended up in the United States, has degrees in physics and
business. That's hardly what would you'd expect of someone
mastering automotive and space engineering. But that resume has
not dictated Musk's goals, which are straightforward: Create a
zero-emissions form of transport, and revolutionize
inter-planetary travel.

In May 2011,
Musk told CNN the fully reusable orbital rocket is one of the
three inventions that will one day change the world. He
explained: "It’s the fundamental invention necessary for humanity
to expand to the stars and to become multi-planetary."

Late in 2012, he
told Space.com he wants SpaceX to help create a
self-sustaining 80,000-person colony on Mars.

It's not about making a profit either,
he told Smithsonian magazine in December: "For me it was
never about money, but solving problems for the future of
humanity."

Tesla's Simple Approach

There's a reason there are only a handful of automakers operating
today: Designing and building cars costs a huge amount of money,
and it's easy to make a dud. To succeed where so many have
failed, Musk created a very simple master business plan, which he
explained in an August 2006 blog post:

So far, Tesla is pretty much on track: The Roadster, an
all-electric sports car, was produced from 2008 to early 2012.
The two-seater could go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds and drive
more than 200 miles on a single charge. It sold for about
$89,000, more than the price of a
brand new Jaguar F-Type sports car.

It was followed by the Model S, a more practical ride with room
for seven. In his master plan blog post, Musk predicted the Model
S would cost about half the price of the Roadster. The new sedan
is less expensive, but not especially affordable.

The cheapest version starts at $52,400 (after a $7,500 federal
tax credit). The most capable version (with a big 85 kWh battery
that offers a range of 300 miles) starts at $72,400.
That is still a lot closer to a BMW than a Ford. But Musk is still determined
to get there,
he told Mashable last year.

Those prices open the Model S to accusations of being luxury car
for the wealthy. Critics
include former GM executive Bob Lutz, who called the Model S
"a nice car for a social elite" in July 2012.

The Roadster wasn’t for everyone, but it wasn’t designed to be.
It was meant to demonstrate a really good car could be made
without the traditional trade-offs people like Mr. Lutz
said were impossible to overcome.

Now Tesla is introducing a car that is much more aligned with
what most people buy.

Accepting the award, Musk called it a "pivotal turn in history,"
and acknowledgment that Tesla had built not just a great electric
car, but "the best car of any kind."

The Model S will be followed by the Model X. When the
all-electric SUV was revealed in February 2012, Tesla said
production would begin by the end of 2013. That
has just been pushed back a year, the company announced in
its annual report on March 7.

That filing also noted the Model X will cost about the same as
the Model S, so the SUV will not be the "even more affordable
car" Musk predicted in his business plan.

Finding the Right People

On top of his ability to read and learn quickly (Success
magazine writes he mastered rocket science by "reading books
and asking questions"), he surrounds himself with smart, talented
people, who have the expertise he is missing.

The
SpaceX Falcon 9 at its launch.SpaceX

He has long believed in talent over numbers, he
said back in 2007: “Numbers will never compensate for talent
in getting the right answer (two people who don't know something
are no better than one), will tend to slow down progress, and
will make the task incredibly expensive.”

Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja came from Ford, bringing with him
knowledge of large-scale automotive operations.

VP of Sales and Ownership George Blankenship was a key strategist
behind the success of Apple's stores. Now, his task is to do the
same with Tesla stores (and be Musk's right-hand man at
press events).

Gwynne Shotwell, a veteran of research and development center
Aerospace Corporation, was tapped to be president of SpaceX.

More recently, Musk said he has started to take personality as
well as talent into account. At South by Southwest last week,
he said his biggest mistake was "weighing too much on
someone's talent and not someone's personality. I think it
matters whether someone has a good heart."

A History Of Failures

Tesla and SpaceX are competing in extremely expensive industries
dominated by enormous corporations and government entities, and
their roads to success have not been easy.

In a February 23, 2010 court filing,
Musk admitted he was broke: "About four months ago, I ran out
of cash." The filing, part of his divorce case from his now
ex-wife, Justine Musk, said he had been living off of personal
loans from friends since October 2009.

This wasn't Elon facing adversity. This was, 'Holy shit.'
Personal bankruptcy was a daily conversation. Tesla was on the
limb to deliver cars that people already paid for. Bankruptcy
would have been easier than what he did. He threw everything he
had into keeping Tesla alive.

In 2009, the company landed a $465 million federal loan, which it
used to get the car into production. With its
successful IPO in June 2010, Tesla became the first automaker
to go public since 1956.

Musk has never had a problem creating demand for the Model S, and
now Tesla has finally hit its goal of producing 400 cars a week,
the number it needs to keep hitting to generate income.

And SpaceX this month completed another successful trip to the
International Space Station.

The common thread in Musk's leadership that has brought both
companies to these tentative levels of success is his willingness
to take risks, his tenacity, and the fervent confidence that gets
others on board with his seemingly crazy ideas.

Success At A Cost?

But there are downsides to the latter two qualities. Musk is
combative, and reacts harshly to outside criticism. Simply put,
it's hard to find an instance where he has publicly admitted
being wrong, because he is so convinced he knows what's right.

In 2008, the popular television show "Top Gear" said the Roadster
it tested ran out of power before achieving the promised range
(and featured the stars pushing it).

The upcoming Tesla Model
X.Alex Davies / Business
Insider

Musk insisted it was misleading, and responded with a lawsuit.
The legal battle dragged on for five years, and finally ended
this month,
with a loss for Tesla.

When John Broder at the New York Times wrote a review last month
accusing the Model S of the same shortcoming, Musk called the
review "fake" on Twitter, and lambasted
Broder in a blog post, writing "some believe the facts
shouldn't get in the way of a salacious story."

Ultimately, the Times
admitted the review showed problems with precision and
judgement, but Public Editor Margaret Sullivan also accused Musk
of using the car's digitally recorded driving logs "in the most
damaging (and sometimes quite misleading) ways possible."

Musk's protests of mistreatment may rally his supporters, but
they earn him little love or respect otherwise. Peter Handal, CEO
of professional training company Dale Carnegie, told Business Insider his attitude can be a
turn-off:

It would
have been more productive for Musk to simply cite the car’s
performance log and refer to the article as “confusing” or
“inaccurate.” Labeling a journalist’s report this way might not
end well since it can damage relationships, cause hostility and
tarnish reputations. And from a practical point of view, that's
not an effective way to "win friends and influence
people."

But ultimately, Musk's personality may do him as much good as
harm, Peter Handal says:

Even though it might raise some eyebrows, Musk’s aggressive
leadership approach is not necessarily a bad thing. In his
industry, he is on the cutting edge of automotive innovation and
technology, and he feels that this is the correct way to handle
how to conduct business.

What really matters is the products he builds: No investor will
care if Musk acts like a jerk, if Tesla delivers its cars on time
and SpaceX keeps running successful journeys.

If both companies stay on track, it will be a testament to Musk's
ability to convert seemingly utopian visions (with the help of a
fortune made in the startup industry) into models for a new
world.